Card-index.



A.- NYVALL. CARD INDEX. APPLICATION FILED DEO.13, 1913.

1,1 1 6,909. I Patented Nov. 10, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

A. NYVALL.

CARD INDEX.

APPLICATION FILED DEG.13, 1913.

1,1 16,909, Patented Nov. 10, 1914.

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ve ificatlci of Let ers latent.-

Grim]; application filed. July 9, 191$, Bella! No. 208,437: li'iiitlandi this. application Med December 13,

1918., flerlal llt 808,400..

To ell whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALBERT: NYVALL, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident'of the borough of Manhattan, city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Card-Indexes, of which the follow. in is a specification.

y invention relates to an improvement in card indexes and is a division ofmy 8P9. plication Serial N 0. 708,437, filed July 9, 1912.

My invention has as its objects the provision of means obviating the use of project ing tabs as at present provided as guides to the-index and substituting therefor grooved depressions with guide cards extending into said grooved depressions but not abovethe top edge of the cards, as will hereafter more clearly appear; the provision of means for.

detecting the misfiling of a card and locating the correct position thereof, and the pro. vision of means for ascertaining the absence of a card from the index and itscorrect location.

A serious inconvenience and objection to card indexes as at present in use is that the projecting tabs of the guide cards break off or are-torn off by the rubbing of the arm of the, user of the index over the cards, the

placing of a book or other object on top.- of the cards, or otherwise. Another objection is that card index boxes cannot be stacked one upon another, owing to the presence of the projecting tabs and consequently when in use are spread about on desks or tables when, if the tops of the cards were flush, such would not be necessary and much space would be economized. Furthermore, if a card is misplaced, much confusion results, and, in a large index, it may be practically impossible to find the missing card. This necessitates the employment of high class clerks for filing in order to prevent mistakes as far as possible. Again, if a card is removed from the file its absence is difiicult, if not impossible, of readv detection. Bv my invention I do away with all of these difiiculties. As I provide no projecting tabs there are none to be broken off and as the tops of the cards in my system are flush with the guide cards, the boxes may readily be stacked one upon another. A casual glance over my card index by an executive will at once detect the misfiling of a card and indicate the P p lace rev it thus mah it. possible to empl dy inexperi encedclerks for the work and furthermore a glance will tell whether a card has been removed and from where.

Ii -the following I have described, in con nection with the acoompanyin drawings, several illustrative methods 0% practising my mventlon, the features thereofi being more particularly pointed out hereinafter lnthe-olaims.

Inthe drawings, Fi re 1 is a perspective V ew illustrating one orm of my invention; Fig. 2 1s a perspective view, partly broken away, oia similarbundle of cards showing a means for noting the absence of a card, as well as meansfor locating-the missing card if) hasrbeen misfiled somewhere else in the ndex; Fig. 3 is a perspective view illustratmg another form of my invention and Fig. 42 1s aperspective vie partly broken away of a similar bundle of cards illustrating the same features as Fig. 2'.

7 Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views.

In the drawings, a indicates the box or drawer adapted to contain the cards. In the form in which my invention is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, I have shown the cards as numerically arranged, the cards being provided with nine notches and a blank each, eachblankin this instance being both an index and a card locating blank. The extreme right hand groovek, as shown, is indexed in multiples oil ten and the other grooves from left to right are indexed in integers from 1 to 9 serially. The index number of each card appears upon the blank space of each card as shown at m in Fig. 2,- so that for example, the first card will hm'e a blank at the left hand end numbered 1 tollowed'bynine notches from left to right, the second card will have a notch at the left hand and followed b a blank numbered 2 andin turn followed bv eight notches and soon, the blanks projecting upward into the grooves. of their respective numbers, that is, number 1 blank projectingupw-ard into 'numberl groove, number- 2 blank projecting upward into. number 2 groove and so on, each group of ten cards being arranged and numbered as described. and then repeated as often as the size of the card index as a whole requires. It will be observed that each card has its individual place and that if any card is inisfiled it not only leaves a vacancy in the place where it belongs, as

shown at n in Fig. 2, but also shows an extra card in the place where it has been misfiled, as shownat p in Fig. 2, thus making it possible both to detect the fact that a card is' the cards arranged so as to combine the benefits of both an alphabetical index-and a numerical system. In this case the cards are provided with ten notches and a blank each,

instead of ninenotches and a blank as shown in connection with Figs. 1 and 2. The general arrangement is the same as described in connection with Figs. 1 and 2 with the exception that the additional groove d',serves as a main guide or index groove. In the form shown in Figs. 3 and 4, if additional cards are needed under any index letter, they should preferably be added in multiples of ten. I have found it convenient to egin the numerical system under each let'- ter with the numeral l but of course any desired arrangementcould be used. The guide or index cards 0', 0 in Figs. 3 and 4 are cut similarly to the other cards excepting that they have a blank projecting upwardly into the groove 03 as shown in Fig. 3. They may also be of contrasting color to the other cards. By this means any number of cards may be included under each index letter with the advantages of my invention as hereinbefore pointed out. i

It is clear in my system that the filing may be done by' unskilled clerks, and the misinspection.

As it is obvious that the details as illustrated may be greatly varied without departing from the principle of my invention, I do not restrict myself to such details further than the scope of the appended claims demand.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A card index comprising a series of cards arranged in groups, said cards being provided with notches in their upper edges, said notches having a normal relationship to the notches in the upper edges of the cards of the same group, and having otherwise an unnotched upper edge adapted to act as an ndex in the grooves formed by the registerng of certain of said notches, the misplacmg of the cards of one group with reference ing witnesses.

to the cards of another group being indicated by the abnormal position of said unnotched upper edges relative to each other.

2. A card index comprising a series of cards arranged in roups, said cards being provided with notch said notches having a normal relationship to the notches in the upper edges of the cards in the same group, but having otherwise an unnotched upper edge adapted to act as an index in the grooves formed by the registering of certain of said notches, and individual identifying means for each of said cards, said unnotched upper edges having a normal relationship to each other in the group with which they are associated, the misplacing ofany card of one group with reference to the cards of another group being indicated by' the abnormal position of said unnotched upper edges relatlve to each other in said latter group and in its normally associated'group.

3. A card index comprising a plurality of cards, each of said cards being. rovlded with a plurality of notches and a lank in its up er edge, said notches being arranged to reglster with all but one of the notches in the adjacent cards and said blank being arranged to register with said remaining notch.

4. A card index comprising a series of cards arranged in groups, each card of each group being provided with a plurality of notches and a blank in its upper edge, said notches being arranged to register with all but one of the notches in the adjacent cards and said blank beingarranged to registerreference to each other. takes, if any, readily ascertained by a mere 5. A card index comprising a series of es in their upper edges,

cards each card having a series of notches in its upper edge, said notches being adapted to register to form rooves with the notches of the ad'acent car s, and an index portion on one '0 said cards projecting into each of said grooves but not above the upper edge of the cards, said index portions having a normal relationship to each other, whereby the misplacing of each card in the system with reference to the other cards is indicated by an abnormal arrangement of said index portions respectively to each other.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscrib- ALBERT NYVALL.

- Witnesses:

SEABURY C. MASTICK, K. G. La Am). 

